1. Field of Technology
The invention applies to the field of computer games, and more specifically to the field of educational computer games and intelligent computer based tutoring systems.
2. Background and Prior Art
A “game” may be defined as “a competitive activity involving skill, chance, or endurance on the part of a participant” and accordingly the term “computer game” is used herein to mean a game played on a computer. Out of all extant computer games, few are educational.
An “educational game” is a game whose express design intent is not only to entertain the player, but also to educate him or her. A game that primarily entertains the user and happens to also have educational content is not an educational game as defined herein. Educational games are a very small subset of all games. Educational game makers have experienced difficulty in combining game elements (called “mechanics”—see next definition) with educational content, often ending up with the worst of both worlds, a game that is boring and does not do a good job of educating the player. In some educational games this undesirable effect results from the game mechanics interfering with or distracting from focusing on the material to be learned.
“Game mechanics” is a term of art meaning the various elements of a game, such as a computer, video, or board game that induce enjoyment and, more generally, motivation to play the game. Game mechanics are responsible for the powerful appeal of games and notably, computer games. Examples of game mechanics in a video game are its scenery, other visual devices such as tools, weapons, people, animals, and other props, its “backstory” (the story “in back of” the visual presentation), a competitive function such as two-player mode or one-player against the computer, or a ticking clock indicating limited time to execute an action before something happens (usually a punishment such as loss of points). Flashcards with no time limit are an example of a learning method that used no game mechanics, while Space Invaders, a complex, best-selling game in which the user must shoot bullets at falling icons (representing extra-terrestrial beings) before they hit the ground, is an example of a game with game mechanics but no intellectual learning component.
Few educational computer programs or intelligent tutoring systems employ the great power of game mechanics to keep students engaged in the system.
A “physical metaphor” in a computer game or simulation is a conceptual representation of a real-world physical object. Often the conceptual representation will be complemented by a graphic representation. For example, a city in a computer game can represent a city in the real world, and a graphic of the city lets the user more easily envision the metaphor. A physical metaphor may be iconic, that is, a minimalistic representation that requires the user to ‘fill in the blanks’ with their mind, or intentionally realistic, as in many modern computer games and training simulations.
As mentioned, a very small percentage of the computer game market uses game mechanics, and specifically physical metaphors, to keep a student interested in persevering to learn the educational subject material. A portion of the software program, Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, called Letter Invaders, is one example.
A “structured curriculum” or “curriculum framework” is a term of art in education. The term describes the formal arrangement of granular subject matter in a hierarchical and ordered sequence. An example of a structured curriculum is the United States Common Core State Standards (see www.corestandards.org): “These standards define the knowledge and skills students should have within their K-12 education careers so that they will graduate high school able to succeed in entry-level, credit-bearing academic college courses and in workforce training programs.”
Here is a description of the intent of the Common Core mathematics standard for children from Kindergarten to Grade 5: “The K-5 standards provide students with a solid foundation in whole numbers, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions and decimals—which help young students build the foundation to successfully apply more demanding math concepts and procedures, and move into applications.”
Here is an example of the actual Common Core standard, which is hierarchical. The top level is Mathematics, the second level is 7th Grade, the third level is Ratios & Proportional Relationships, the fourth level is “Recognize and represent proportional relationships between quantities,” and one example of several on the fifth level is “Decide whether two quantities are in a proportional relationship, e.g., by testing for equivalent ratios in a table or graphing on a coordinate plane and observing whether the graph is a straight line through the origin.”
There are similar international and local standards around the world. Another example of a structured curriculum are the hierarchical format of standardized tests, such as the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) taken by high school students in preparation for college application, or the Graduate Record Exams (GRE) taken by more than 600,000 test takers across 230 countries, in preparation for graduate school application.
Virtually no educational games systematically map their subject matter to formal structured curricula. At the other end of the spectrum, computer-based training systems incorporate structured curricula, but use few or no game mechanics or physical metaphors to represent curricula.
There are a number of results in the psychological literature that indicate ways to optimize learning and the retention of what a student learns. Some of these results are used in the design of computer programs such as those used in intelligent tutoring systems. However, few are mapped to physical metaphors in educational games.
The “spacing effect,” first studied by Hermann Ebbinghaus and published by him in 1885, is a well-known phenomenon in human psychology and the theory of learning. The effect states that long-term recall of learned information is enhanced by presenting the item to be retained at spaced intervals over time as opposed to in a “massed presentation,” that is, at one time. Thus a “forgetting curve” showing the amount of information retained versus lost is flattened when the spacing effect is employed in learning. In colloquial terms, “If you can remind someone of something just as they are going to forget it they will remember it for a very long time. Much much longer than if they had just learned it once without any periodic review.” (“Want to Remember Everything You'll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm”, Wired Magazine, 2008).
There are computer programs that use the spacing effect to optimize learning by students. U.S. Pat. No. 6,652,283 (Van Schaack) and U.S. Patent Application Pub. No. 2010/0035225 (Kerfoot) are examples of teaching systems that use the spacing effect. There are few examples of prior art in which a learning technique, such as the spacing effect, is mapped to a physical metaphor so as to facilitate its application to human learning.
Supermemo is a computer program that employs the spacing effect as its key feature, reminding the user when to review the facts he or she wants to remember (www.supermemo.com/index.htm). Supermemo does not use game mechanics or a mapping of the spacing effect to a physical metaphor.
FIG. 9 shows an educational website, Quizilla, that uses no game mechanics and no mapping of its body of knowledge to any physical metaphor.
FIG. 10 shows an internet game using the physical metaphor of a city in its name, EducationCity.com, and which uses systems and methods for education, but which, unlike the present invention, lacks a body of knowledge mapped to the physical metaphor in its systems and methods.
FIG. 11 shows an internet game using the physical metaphor of a city, MyMiniCity, but which, unlike the present invention, lacks a body of knowledge mapped to it.
While there currently exists a multi-billion dollar industry supplying non-educational computer games to an avid market, there are virtually no educational computer video games that are sold directly to this market. Educational computer games are notoriously either not fun (lacking compelling game mechanics) or non-educational (a normal game masquerading as educational in order to be purchased by parents). The lament of one of the most successful non-educational video game creators is captured in this quotation: “To McGonigal, the addictive draw of games represents a remarkable opportunity to improve reality, not simply escape from it . . . ” (Review of How Games Will Save the World, by Jane McGonigal, Discover (March 2011)). Few video games have been successful at combining the extraordinary power of game mechanics to motivate a student to continue learning while delivering expressly educational material.
None of the prior art provides a computer game with 1) underlying and primary purpose of education; 2) game mechanics mapped to a real-life metaphor; 3) game mechanics designed to trigger replay of the game; and 4) replay of the game timed to the spacing effect in order to optimize learning. What is needed, therefore, is an educational video game that overcomes the above-mentioned limitations and that includes the features enumerated above.